PERSONAL THOUGHT SPECIAL ...Think About Your Thoughts

Think About  Your Thoughts By Anisa Virji

'The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.' - Richard Feynman Do you ever get frustrated with your thoughts because you seem to be thinking the same thing over and over again? Especially when you are angry or embarrassed, your mind plays the scene of your humiliation on a loop, subtitling it with, 'You really messed up, you fool.' It is no wonder we are often uncomfortable with our thoughts. People go to great lengths to avoid being left alone with their thoughts. The constant prattle of TV in the background, headphones always on, head buried in a newspaper. I imagine some people get married so they have a lifelong distraction, oops, I mean companion, keeping them from dwelling in their own minds. 'Most people fear being without audiovisual stimulation because they are too repetitive when they think,' Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes. And repetition is boring. Imagine you are having dinner with a friend who can't stop complaining about work. At some point you think, 'I am not doing this to myself again. No more dinners with X.' That is the same thing we tell ourselves when we get tired of our thoughts. No more thinking. But here's why your thoughts are so repetitive. They are trying to convince you...often about things you don't believe.  Question the thoughts in your head The thoughts in your head, you didn't put them there. Thoughts just show up, uninvited, unannounced. That may be difficult to grasp. But if it were up to you, would you be thinking the same thoughts you are thinking now? I know many people who have entrepreneurial ambitions. They want to start something of their own. Here's why they don't... Their thoughts say, 'I don't think I could ever start a business. I am not capable. I am quite disorganised. I don't know enough. I don't have it in me.' If it were up to you, you wouldn't think that way. If it were up to you, you would be thinking positive, powerful thoughts all day. You would think, 'I am enough.' 'I am smart enough. I am organised enough. I am born to be successful. I can do anything I set my mind to. I can start a successful business.' And yet, for no apparent reason, the thought in your head says the opposite, 'I am not good enough.' And because it is in your head, you pay heed to the thought. You kowtow to it. You let it rule your life and your decisions. Why? Both thoughts are equally arbitrary. Neither is more true than the other. If you start a business, the chances of you succeeding are unknown. You might succeed, or you might fail. But you can't know for sure which way it will go, right? So why, then, do you give in to the thought that causes fear and anxiety? Why then do you let this arbitrary thought dictate your future, keep you in a rut, prevent you from adventure, from happiness? 'I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.' - author Jonathon Safran Foer. Byron Katie, who wrote the book, Loving What Is, tells us that the thoughts that we have are separate from us. At first, I resisted this idea because it makes no sense to me. After all, 'I think, therefore I am.' But then I realised I often disagree with my own thoughts. But who am I disagreeing with? So Katie says, question your thoughts to check whether you even really believe them. It's ironic, she is asking us to think about our thoughts. Ask the following questions about your thoughts to see if they are worth exploring or would be better put to sleep... Is the thing I'm thinking true? If you are worrying about a future that hasn't happened yet, this question will put that worry to sleep. Is it true that if I start a business I will fail? You can't know that, and so you can't say it is true. When questioned, this thought disintegrates. Is it productive? If your thoughts are stuck in a loop about something that happened in the past, this question will lay it to rest. It allows you to stop dwelling on your mistakes, your humiliation, your regrets, and to clean yourself and think about possibilities instead. How does it make you feel? Maybe you did make a stupid mistake and embarrass yourself. If your thoughts insist on reminding you how bad you feel, then perhaps you can dismiss those thoughts by questioning them and acknowledging their uselessness. On the other hand, if a thought perks you up, infuses you with energy, or simply brings a smile to your face, it's a much more useful thought to keep around. How does this thought impact your life? Thoughts have immense power. They can impact your health, wealth, and happiness. They can plunge you into the depths of despair and paralyse you into inaction. They can also propel you to the heights you dare to think. No one ever questions the power of thinking, but many still find they are afraid of their thoughts. To achieve success, though, you need to think. Instead of avoiding the negative, fruitless, repetitive rantings in your brain through TV and mindless chatter, choose to question, train, and eventually control your thinking to accompany you on that path to success. You don't have to be brilliant, or have a great grasp of philosophy, or a high IQ to think well. All you need are a few questions, and the courage to ask them. 'Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.' - Marcus Aurelius

COMMON SENSE OF LIVING